


Stranger on a Train

by ultraviolethaz



Series: Flufftober 2019 [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Flufftober, M/M, Meet-Cute, Sharing a Bed, Snowed In, Sort Of, Strangers to Lovers, Trains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 08:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20862944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultraviolethaz/pseuds/ultraviolethaz
Summary: Magnus was visiting for Christmas, and he knew he should’ve left earlier in the week, he knew there would be snow, it always happened, but he had a meeting last week that he couldn’t miss. He just hoped he would be able to get somewhere, before the weather became an issue.Or the one where Magnus regrets not getting an earlier train...but not for long





	Stranger on a Train

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! 
> 
> Day 2 is snow and I have to say I struggled a bit with this one but I like how it ended up
> 
> Thank you so much for the all the kudos! 
> 
> Enjoy! K

“I have to go” said to the empty room, shoving one last jumper into his bag, Magnus closed the suitcase up, grabbing his phone and keys on the way out of the door, and ran down the stairs to the street. Hailing a taxi and jumping in, he was so late. 

The train station was empty, after jumping out of the cab he had taken an hour train to the middle of nowhere and was now waiting for the overnight train to visit his mum. Since college they had lived on opposite sides of the country, Magnus in New York and Natalie in California. Magnus was raised on the West Coast and wanted a change, his mum never followed and he didn’t blame her, California was her home since she moved from Indonesia there was never going to be anything like home for her. Magnus was visiting for Christmas, and he knew he should’ve left earlier in the week, he knew there would be snow, it always happened, but he had a meeting last week that he couldn’t miss. He just hoped he would be able to get somewhere, before the weather became an issue. 

The train pulled into the station, climbing on, Magnus found his seat lifting his suitcase up into the overhead rack, but he couldn’t quite reach then there was a hand behind him pushing the case up and over the ridge on the rack. Turning to see who the hand belong to, he was met with big green eyes and a mop of black hair, this man could quite possibly be the most attractive man, Magnus has ever seen. 

“Thank you” Magnus managed to squeak out before he slid into the seat, to his surprise the man slid into the seat next to him and suddenly Magnus was feeling very claustrophobic. He started rummaging through the backpack he had on his lap, looking for headphones, he knew he packed them if he could just… they’re in the suitcase, in the rush of that afternoon and running out of the apartment, he had shoved them into his suitcase. Slumping his head back onto the headrest, this was going to be a long trip.

“Are you okay?” A deep voice from his right sounded, he realised it was the green eyed angel, sat next to him 

“Uh yeah, I just didn’t pack my headphones” 

“Want to share mine?” The man offered, holding up one of the earphones. 

“Are you sure?” The man just nodded, pushing out his hand further, Magnus placed it into his ear, to hear a podcast? Maybe confusion had been written on his face because the man asked

“Do you prefer music?”

“No, don’t change it this seems interesting” Magnus hid the smile on his face by looking out of the window at the trees flying by as the train travelled slowly through the country.

Listening to the crime podcast, must have made him fallen asleep because the next thing he knew there was a sure hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he looked around to see the same man. 

“There’s food, I wasn’t sure if you wanted any?” Magnus nodded, the man spoke again but this time to the woman stood in the isle “Can we get two?” The lady passed over two containers thanked the raven haired man and moved on down the carriage “Here”

“Did you just pay for that?”

“Yeah” Magnus patted his pockets for his wallet “No no it’s fine, call it my good deed for the day” The man smiled and Magnus smiled back, he noticed how the man’s smile was slightly lopsided and he found it very endearing to say the least. “My name’s Alec by the way” Quickly holding out his hand for Magnus to shake.

“Magnus, it’s nice to meet you” They exchanged their reasons for travelling, Magnus discovering that Alec had just returned from a six month trip to South America, and was now going to see his family for Christmas, and to finally meet his sister’s baby. They talked for ages about their lives and turns out they had almost crossed paths plenty of times, when Alec had been in New York. Magnus thought that it was weird how you almost cross paths with someone so many times, at a cafe or at a bar, but you finally meet them on a train going to the same destination, it was almost like fate. His thoughts were interrupted by an announcement over the train’s tanode

“We regret to inform you that this train is terminating here, there was a snow fall further along the line, we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, local hotels are available to accommodate you, no one is allowed to stay on the train overnight, again we are sorry for any inconvenience, this journey will resume in the morning, thank you” Magnus mentally facepalmed and then actually did, with the chair in front of him receiving the brunt of the impact. What was he supposed to do? He reached for his phone and quickly googled hotels, finding a small B&B about 10 minutes away, then he remembered Alec, turning to look at the man, “I found a tiny b&b not far from here, if you want to head down there? See if they have room”

“That would be great” Magnus smiled as they both slide out of the seat into the isle, Alec grabbed both of their suitcases down from the rack, passing Magnus’ to him and walked towards the exit of the train.

The pair had ended up walking to the B&B, getting a cab was almost impossible, with everyone rushing to grab one, and with the snow there wasn’t many. The B&B was small, a little run down on the outside, but they walked inside and were greeted with a smiley woman, Claire- Magnus read from her name tag- it was clear they didn’t get many customers here.

“And what can I do for you?” She spoke, her voice small compared to the smile she had covering her face.

“Have you got any rooms?” Magnus asked, resting his elbow on top of the desk and flashing that award winning smile, Claire looked between Magnus and Alec, who was just stood behind Magnus holding his case looking slightly awkward 

“Uh we have one available” Magnus turned to look at Alec

“You take it, I’ll sleep at the train station”

“You have to be kidding, no you take it” Alec said gesturing towards the desk 

“It’s a twin room, you can both have it” Claire chipped in from behind Magnus, send Alec a questioning look

“We’ll take it” Alec said, at this point, sharing a room with Magnus a practical stranger was better than literally anything else, the snow was too heavy and it was far too cold for either of them to think about sleeping anywhere else for the night.

Inside the room, they both stood in the doorway, just staring around the room, there wasn’t much to it, a small two seater sofa in the corner, a dresser, a mini fridge, television and a double bed. Not one of those double beds at hotels, that can be split into two seperate beds, it was all or nothing. Magnus turned to Alec, to see what his face was saying, in the short time they had known each other Magnus knew he could read much more off Alec’s facial expressions than the words that were actually being spoken. Right now that face was saying ‘I don't want to share a bed with a stranger’

“I can take the couch?” Magnus suggested, even though it was an awful shade of yellow and had seen better days, many many centuries ago.

“Magnus, you can’t be serious?” Raising an eyebrow and pointing in the direction of the couch “Have you seen it? I may have only met you 3 hours ago but I can’t let you sleep on that” 

“What side do you want then?” Magnus asked, wheeling his suitcase towards the bed, Alec headed for the right side, closer to the window, leaving Magnus closer to the hideous couch. 

The night droned on, they headed to a diner and picked up burgers to bring back to the room, turning on the TV and not getting anything other than a horror film. Now Magnus was not afraid of horror movies, he just didn’t like them and when Alec returned from the shared bathroom downstairs, to find Magnus cowering under the covers he just laughed. 

“Not a fan of it, I see” Alec said sliding under the covers himself, Magnus shook his head, still slightly hidden under the duvet

“Nothing I could hate more, oh maybe spiders, definitely spiders” Pulling himself up and pulling the duvet to his armpits, and letting the rest pool around him. He realised now just how small the bed was, how close he really was to Alec, maybe too close. But he found he didn’t really mind there was something endearing about Alec, beyond that smile that had knocked him down at the first hurdle. Something he couldn’t put his finger on. Then there was a bang on the TV, loud and awful that made Magnus jump.

“We can always turn it off” Alec suggested, it was getting late but there was a moment where Magnus thought staying up and talking to Alec for the rest of the night seemed like a good idea, the television was the only thing that was truly keeping them awake. But he nodded nonetheless and Alec switched it off. Silence, complete silence. They hadn't been in this silence before, there was the sound of the train tracks or the sound of others talking, but this was nothing. No background noise. Just the sound of them breathing and Alec putting the remote back on the nightstand. 

“Goodnight?” Said as more of a question as Alec turned to switch off the bedside lamp, Magnus watched as he moved, flicking the switch under the shade, how he turned back over to face Magnus, the way the corners of his eyes crinkled slightly as they closed and his forehead wrinkled as if he was thinking really hard. It was weird to watch a stranger right? There was no way this was normal. But Magnus found he just couldn’t tear his eyes away from the peaceful figure laid next to him. “You’re staring at me” Magnus turned around as soon as Alec said it, pushing the switch on his bedside light, he turned his back to Alec. Well this was awkward, not only had he got caught staring, he was staring in the first place.

“I didn’t say stop” Alec spoke again into the darkness, Magnus jumped slightly at the sound filling the silence, but pushed himself to turn over, facing Alec again. He couldn’t really see the other man, all he could see was his silhouette in the shadow of the light coming from the window. Magnus just laid there, looking trying to make out any sort of feature on the other’s face. This was definitely weird, you don’t share a bed with a stranger and then look at their face for ten minutes. But Alec wasn’t a stranger, not really. He is the man who Magnus met on the train. He is the man who let Magnus borrow an earphone to listen to a crime podcast together. He is the man who had brought Magnus food on the train. He is the man who Magnus is sharing a bed with. He is the man who Magnus is staring at. He is the man that Magnus could see himself falling for. 

Without thinking, he snaked an arm under the covers and ran his fingers across Alec’s shoulder and down his arm, until he reached his hand. Alec was the one to intwine his fingers in between Magnus’. They were holding hands, under the security of the duvet covers. Like a secret, that only they knew about. Magnus smiled, watching as Alec followed the line of his own arm down to where their hands were, he seemed surprised, Magnus was going to pull away but when he felt Alec squeeze his hand, he squeezed back and the other seemed satisfied, closing his eyes again and placing his head back on the pillow. Magnus following his lead and falling asleep, almost instantly not realising how tired he actually was.

In the morning, Magnus rolled onto his back, feeling for Alec, their hands had become detached in their sleep. But there was nothing there, but a cold side of the bed, Magnus looked around the room, trying to see if the man was just sat somewhere else in the room, but there was still nothing. The door to the room opened at that, and Alec appeared, still clad in a black shirt and pyjama bottoms from last night. 

“I brought the food here, people looked at me funny for taking so much food with me though”

“That’s because you’re supposed to go down and sit at the table, dear” The pet name slipping passed his lips before he could think about it. But Alec didn’t seem to flinch and just settled the plate of food down onto the duvet in front of Magnus.

They shared breakfast together, got dressed in different corners of the room, Magnus just throwing a jumper over his pyjama top and pulling on a pair of jeans from yesterday, he was more prepared for California weather, not the snowy weather that was still waiting for them outside.The train station was just as crowded as it had been the previous night, but the pair found their way back to their seats, Alec once again helping Magnus with his suitcase. The next 12 hours was spent on that train, it started slow until they got out of the snow, they both spent the night on the train, retiring to one of the cabins, Magnus hadn’t been able to book a cabin was just hoping for a comfortable seat, but Alec offered up the other bed to him, he took it. Laying in that rock hard bed that evening, Magnus thought about how easy things were with Alec, how it was all too easy. He could talk to the man about almost anything and not have any fear of judgement, he’d done a lot of thinking these past two days, with the man only a few feet (or millimetres) away from him. Could he really be falling for a (not) stranger?

The pair spent the morning, packing up their belongings and eating breakfast in the restaurant carriage, and with Alec’s phone now charged, they exchanged photos, Alec of his sister and brother’s and the new addition of baby Tara. Magnus of his mum and his cats. The journey was nearing an end, everyone waiting at the doors, ready to jump off into the California sunshine, and start their own adventures. As soon as the doors opened Magnus jumped off, suitcase in hand, he knew Alec would be right behind him, their story wasn’t over yet. What he didn’t expect was for a hand to be on his shoulder twirling him around, he crashed into the man’s chest, hands were circling his neck and his own were round the other’s waist. The hug got weaker, until Alec finally pulled away, to look Magnus in the eye

“Don’t forget me, okay?”

“And how could I ever do that?”

They parted ways, not before Alec gave Magnus a piece of paper with his number written on it. They talk almost everyday about everything and nothing, before Magnus left back for New York, this time on a plane. They met up shortly after Alec arrived back in New York- right after the new year- Magnus got to see Alec’s face like it was the first time all over again. It was all perfect. They text each other every day while Alec is away on another adventure in the world, and with every message Magnus finds himself falling deeper.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter @cobaltbane


End file.
